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President's Park

(Encyclopedia)President's Park, c.82 acres (33 hectares), Washington, D.C. A unit of the National Park system, it includes the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States; Lafayette Sq...

Doctorow, E. L.

(Encyclopedia)Doctorow, E. L. (Edgar Lawrence Doctorow) dŏkˈtərōˌ [key], 1931–2015, American novelist, b. New York City. The author of a dozen novels, Doctorow is known for his skillful blending of fiction a...

Ratas, Jüri

(Encyclopedia)Ratas, Jüri, 1978–, Estonian political leader. A member of the Center party, a populist party with strong support among ethnic Russians, Ratas was mayor of Talinn (2005–7), before entering the Es...

Krutch, Joseph Wood

(Encyclopedia)Krutch, Joseph Wood kro͝och [key], 1893–1970, American author, editor, and teacher, b. Knoxville, Tenn., grad. Univ. of Tennessee, 1915, Ph.D. Columbia, 1923. He was on the editorial staff of the N...

Virginius affair

(Encyclopedia)Virginius affair, 1873, incident that came near to causing war between the United States and Spain. The Virginius, a filibustering ship, was fraudulently flying the American flag and carrying arms to ...

Hughes, Charles Evans

(Encyclopedia)Hughes, Charles Evans hyo͞oz [key], 1862–1948, American statesman and jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1910–16), U.S. secretary of state (1921–25), and 11th chief justice of...

Sargent, Thomas John

(Encyclopedia)Sargent, Thomas John, 1943–, American economist, b. Pasadena, Calif., Ph.D. Harvard (1968). He has been on the faculty at the Univ. of Pennsylvania (1970–71), Univ. of Minnesota (1971–87), Univ....

Kaiser, Henry John

(Encyclopedia)Kaiser, Henry John, 1882–1967, American industrialist, b. Sprout Brook, N.Y. He organized his first construction company in 1913, soon entered the road-paving business, and by 1930 was a leader in t...

Imperial Valley

(Encyclopedia)Imperial Valley, fertile region in the Colorado Desert, SE Calif., extending S into NW Mexico. Once part of the Gulf of California, most of the region is below sea level; its lowest point is −232 ft...

Ballard, J. G.

(Encyclopedia)Ballard, J. G. (James Graham Ballard) bălˈərd [key], 1930–2009, English writer, mainly of dystopian science fiction. Born to English parents in Shanghai, he was torn from his affluent surrounding...
 

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